Earlier this week, we got character info on most of the cast of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story along with confirmation that Darth Vader would be returning to the Star Wars series. Today, EW has released 16 images from the film, which provide a closeup on the new characters along with some brief bits of info.
For example, one of the relationships in the film will be between the friends Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), a blind warrior monk, and Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), his rough-and-tumble protector. “Like the original Star Wars, these characters owe a debt to the two peasants from a 1958 Akira Kurosawa adventure saga. ‘They’re inspired, again, by what inspired George in The Hidden Fortress,’ Kennedy says. ‘You could even say to some extent it’s, you know, R2 and C-3PO, a little bit of that.’”
There’s also some insight on the deathtroopers, “who are tasked with hunting down and destroying the fragmented Rebel uprising,” so presumably that’s their only task while the stormtrooper is a more an all-purpose soldier.
Speaking of villains, we also learn a little bit more about baddie Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn):
"He understands the system and he knows how things work, but he also is not above trying to bend it to get what he needs or what he thinks he wants," says Kiri Hart, Lucasfilm's head of story development. Krennic is intended to be a contrast to Imperial officers we’ve seen before, like Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin. “Tarkin is the model for these really cool, icy types, you know?” Hart says. “Krennic runs a little hotter than that, so that’s kind of fun and it’s a little bit different. … He is unpredictable and volatile.”
Check out the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story images below. The film opens December 16th, and also stars Diego Luna, Forest Whitaker, Felicity Jones, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, and Mads Mikkelsen.
For more on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, click on the links below:
- Mads Mikkelsen Comments on ‘Rogue One’ Reshoots; Says It’s “the Same Film”
- ‘Rogue One’ Reshoots: Disney Attempts to Reassure Fans; Brings on Tony Gilroy to Handle Script
- ‘Rogue One’: No, Christopher McQuarrie Is Not Taking Over the Reshoots
- ‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ Reshoot Details Revealed
- Everything We Know about ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’